Leaders of NAI Ruhl Commercial Company announced during their sixth annual QCA Commercial Real Estate Market report event in Davenport, Iowa, that the top concern in the Midwest and Quad Cities commercial real estate market is inventory.
“Our agents are finding it increasingly difficult to identify good quality investment and user product for their clients,” said John Ruhl, prresident of NAI Ruhl Commercial Company.
The event was attended by more than 400 local investors, property owners, bankers, government officials, business leaders and community professionals in the Quad Cities region. The presentation showcased the findings from NAI Ruhl Commercial Company’s annual market report including recent sales and leasing activity, vacancy rates, lease rates and trends in the marketplace.
In its sixth consecutive year, attendance nearly doubled since the event’s first year.
“New office construction has been somewhat muted at the end of 2018 and into 2019 and most properties have been build-to-suit projects with pre-construction leases met with contractual tenant leases,” said David Levin, vice president and director of the company’s Illinois Region.
Richard Weinstein, vice president and director addressed the retail market, saying, “While market activity decreased slightly in terms of number of transactions and dollar volume of transactions, the amount of total square footage sold or leased increased.”
Charlie Armstrong, vice president and director with NAI Ruhl, said that 2018 industrial market activity trends were positive with the exception of the number of transactions, which was down 20 percent. However, the amount of square feet sold or leased jumped 29 percent, rising from 1.6 million square feet to 2.1 million square feet. The total dollar volume of these transaction increased by 11 percent from $21.2 million to $23.6 million.
Dwayne Anderson, commercial sales assocaite with NAI Ruhl, said that the prices being paid for high-quality Illinois and Iowa farmland, as well as cash rents, have remained stable. There was significant price variation within individual land classes throughout the two states region with slight to modest declines noted locally.
